Two long essays: "The Idea of a Christian Society" on the direction of religious thought toward criticism of political and economic systems; and "Notes towards the Definition of Culture" on culture, its meaning, and the dangers threatening the legacy of the Western world.
"Barry Spurr's eagerly-awaited, definitive study of T.S. Eliot's Anglo-Catholic belief and practice shows how the poet is religion shaped his life and work for almost forty years, until his death in 1965. The author examines Eliot's formal adoption of Anglo-Catholicism, in 1927, as the culmination of his intellectual, cultural, artistic, spiritual and personal development to that point. This book presents the first detailed analysis of the unique influence that Anglo-Catholicismis doctrinal and devotional principles, and its social teaching, had on Eliot's poetry, plays, prose and personal life. An informed presentation and discussion of Anglo-Catholicism at the time of Eliot's conversion and through the subsequent decades of his Christian faith and practice. Significant new material from correspondence and diaries which sheds light on Eliot's thought, poetry and prose. This book is essential reading for all scholars and readers of T.S. Eliot and his circle; for students and devotees ofAnglo-Catholicism, and scholars of the interaction between literature and theology, especially in the twentieth century. It will also be of use to senior and Honours-level undergraduates and postgraduate research students working in the fields of Modernism and its principles and belief systems, and for students of religion, especially Western Christianity and Anglicanism."
The Nobel Prize–winning author created the words for this unique play about religion in the twentieth century. The choruses in this pageant play represent a new verse experiment on Mr. Eliot’s part; and taken together make a sequence of verses about twice the length of “The Waste Land.” Mr. Eliot has written the words; the scenario and design of the play were provided by a collaborator, and the purpose was to provide a pageant of the Church of England for presentation on a particular occasion. The action turns upon the efforts and difficulties of a group of London masons in building a church. Incidentally, a number of historical scenes, illustrative of church-building, are introduced. The play, enthusiastically greeted, was first presented in England, at Sadler’s Wells; the production included much pageantry, mimetic action, and ballet, with music by Dr. Martin Shaw. Immediately after the production of this play in England, Francis Birrell wrote in The New Statesman: “The magnificent verse, the crashing Hebraic choruses which Mr. Eliot has written had best be studied in the book. The Rock is certainly one of the most interesting artistic experiments to be given in recent times.” The Times Literary Supplement also spoke with high praise: “The choruses exceed in length any of his previous poetry; and on the stage they prove the most vital part of the performance. They combine the sweep of psalmody with the exact employment of colloquial words. They are lightly written, as though whispered to the paper, yet are forcible to enunciate . . . . There is exhibited here a command of novel and musical dramatic speech which, considered alone, is an exceptional achievement.”
One of the twentieth century’s great thinkers and writers explores what it means to incorporate Christian values into our worldly lives. Originally delivered in 1939 at Corpus Christi College, these three lectures by the renowned poet and playwright T. S. Eliot address the direction of religious thought toward criticism of political and economic systems. With sincerity and intellectual rigor, the Nobel Prize winner asks whether—and how—it is possible for Christianity to coexist with Western democracy and capitalism.
By comparing and contrasting the pre-conversion and the post-conversion poetics and poetic practices of T.S. Eliot, this book elucidates the responsibilities and opportunities for a poet who is also Christian. This book is the second in a trilogy which includes T.S. Eliot, Lancelot Andrewes, and the Word.
Julius's critically acclaimed study (looking both at the detail of Eliot's deployment of anti-Semitic discourse and at the role it played in his greater literary undertaking) has provoked a reassessment of Eliot's work among poets, scholars, critics and readers, which will invigorate debate for some time to come.
What holds America together? In this classic work, Russell Kirk identifies the beliefs and institutions that have nurtured the American soul and commonwealth. Beginning with the Hebrew prophets, Kirk examines in dramatic fashion the sources of American order. His analytical narrative might be called a "tale of five cities": Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and Philadelphia. For an understanding of the significance of America in the twenty-first century, Russell Kirk's masterpiece on the history of American civilization is unsurpassed.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was an Anglo-American poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Although considered a seminal modernist poet, he is best known today as the author of the poems used as the basis for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, "Cats." Eliot won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. We provide here a compilation of three slim, early volumes of Eliot's poetry. Among the poems included are two of his most famous works, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land," complete with Eliot's own, somewhat notorious, notes on the latter. This book is in the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for writing English developed in the mid-19th century at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah).
In this Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, Wilson has completely revised the poems to attain a more classical perfection. Includes new poems collected as "The Christmas Preface."
The last major verse written by Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot, considered by Eliot himself to be his finest work Four Quartets is a rich composition that expands the spiritual vision introduced in “The Waste Land.” Here, in four linked poems (“Burnt Norton,” “East Coker,” “The Dry Salvages,” and “Little Gidding”), spiritual, philosophical, and personal themes emerge through symbolic allusions and literary and religious references from both Eastern and Western thought. It is the culminating achievement by a man considered the greatest poet of the twentieth century and one of the seminal figures in the evolution of modernism.